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A Bank That Has Delivered 33% a Year for 10 Years

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- For the most part, banks have not been very good investments over the last 10 years. Of course, the financial crisis of 2008 did not help.

Bank stocks have made up a lot of lost ground since their lows set in March of 2009, however.
Bank of America(BAC), for instance, has gone from a low of $3 per share back then to a current price of just over $9. Bank of America has been a terrible performer over the years, however.

As you can see from the above screenshot, the stock has gone backwards by 9.3% per year over the last 10 years! If I delivered performance like that as a professional money manager I would not have too many clients. The stock was down a gut-wrenching 63.1% in 2008. Ouch, that hurts!

Even with more favorable circumstances over the past three years, the stock has still gone the wrong way by 19.6% per year! Yes, the last 12 months have been good for the stock as it is up 44.3% since this time last year.

Citigroup did even worse in 2008. The stock took a 76% beating! That is one large woodshed. Over the last 10 years, the stock has been going backwards by 17.6% per year. That makes Bank of America's -9.6% look pretty good by comparison.

Over the last five years, the stock has lost a gut-wrenching 40.4% per year of its value. Has anyone been to a Citigroup shareholders meeting lately? I was just wondering. Do they screen shareholders for rotten tomatoes on the way in?

The shares have badly trailed the
S&P 500 once again over the last three years but, hallelujah, it has squeaked out a slight 1.2% victory over the market during the last 12 months. This is not a stock that I would have a lot of confidence in going forward.

Now, you could make the case that this has been a horrible decade for the banks. With the real estate bubble and crash, and the mess it left behind, how could any bank have performed well during those trouble times?